Meet Mousy

This is Mousy. He is a very important part of our lives. Mousy is Rease's favorite little friend. He goes to the store with us, he goes in the shower with the girls, he goes down for naps when Rease does and he even goes to the doctor when he is "sick." Yes Mousy has become part of the family.

About a year ago, Rease was in a "Littlest Pet Shop" craze and had a whole bucketful of these tiny creatures. We still have them scattered around our house, but for some reason this smallest pink mouse has stayed in Rease's care. She lovingly named him Mousy and for some reason he is a boy even though he is pink.

There is one major problem with Mousy. He is tiny. Maybe normally that wouldn't be a problem but because of his size he is easily lost and that quickly becomes a problem because we can't find him for naps, trips in the car or whatever it is that Rease is doing and wants Mousy along with her. There have been many nights spent crying because Mousy can't be found and Rease thinks she can't go to sleep without him. Luckily we have been able to dig him out of couch cushions, coat pockets, carseat creases and dirty laundry piles and haven't ever lost him for more than 2 days at a time.

The other problem with his size is that he is easily overlooked. One time about 3 months ago I accidentally stepped on Mousy. Nevermind that the darn thing hurt my barefoot, Rease rushed him off to the doctor to be mended and hasn't let me forget it since. She is constantly taking him to the doctor and when I ask what's wrong with him she reminds me "he's sick because you stepped on him." I may never live that one down.

Rease's best side comes out when Mousy is around. She is very very sweet and loving with him - always, and I mean constantly, kissing him, cuddling him, wrapping him up in blankets (wipes) and putting him down for naps, feeding him dinner, hugging, dancing with him and anything else that any best friend would do. I love Mousy because my Rease loves Mousy and that makes her happy! Thanks for being part of our lives Mousy!

(I'm seriously considering buying Mousy a twin just in case Mousy gets lost. What would we do if we lost this precious mouse?)

Birthday month

Josh always teases me because I have a birthday month not just a birthday. I have to admit, this year seemed like it! Not that I'm complaining, but we sure did celebrate the big 2-9 this year. Here's a look at the past couple of weeks.

All of us gathered at mom and dad's house for dinner a couple of Sundays ago. All my favorite people were there - Josh's parents, my parents, siblings, Greg, and of course my girls and Josh. My mom let's us choose what we want for the birthday dinner when it's our turn. I decided hamburgers, chips and guacomole and watermelon sounded good - so that's what we did. It was a perfect day for a barbecue and my girls went clothes-less the whole day enjoying the nice weather.

Rhen enjoyed the food and I enjoyed the fact that she didn't get any clothes dirty with her messy watermelon.

Rease isn't too old for no clothes, right? She is still 2 afterall.
Josh made a delicious homemade ice cream cake.

Our little fam.

On my actual birthday day we took the kids to the zoo. I don't know if I've ever been to Hogle Zoo but we thought the kids would love it. So off we went. Our first stop...the elephants.

Rease loved seeing all the elephants and said to me "they are just like the ones on Jungle Book."

Rease has this funny face when we tell her to smile. It's like she's trying to smile and get the picture over with but it looks so fake while she's at it. This is what most of her pictures look like lately.

Waiting to see the llamas do something cool.

Rhen was very patient in her stroller. She has been sick the last couple of days so she was pretty content to just hang out and watch what was going on around her.

I love this face.

Rease loved the giraffes. And I don't blame her, they really are pretty amazing.

Had to get a picture with the tigers.

Rease is in this climbing craze. Gone are the days of being scared - she is now all over and on top of everything she can get to. Just a few pics of her climbing all over everything at the zoo.

We grabbed a quick pic of all of us as we were leaving the park.

That night we went to dinner and a movie with Josh's parents to end the month long celebration. Thanks to Josh for being a good husband and a good sport with all the birthday stuff. We had a great day together!

Piano recital

Our brother in law Caleb has started taking piano lessons. Last week he had his first recital and we were lucky enough to be invited to watch.

Before each of the students played their song, they announced their name and what they would be playing. Caleb played "Don't cry for me Argentina" and did a fabulous job. He was one of the only ones that did it without his music.

Over the past few months Rease has been watching Caleb practice at Grammie's house and she has started telling me that she is going to "do her homework." So after he's done practicing, she'll pull out a piano book and "practice" herself for a few minutes. So after Caleb was done with his piece at the recital, Rease jumped off her chair and said "oh it's my turn now." Luckily Caleb was one of the last ones on the program so Rease could have her turn after the recital was over.

She stood there just like everyone else and said "I'm Rease and I'm grateful for all my blessings and I will practice my song now." (Just a little mix up with the prayer but oh well!)

Taking her bow afterward.

Maybe I won't have to fight this girl on piano lessons like my parents had to with me!

Make Up

Rease loves watching me get ready for the day because I let her put "make up" on after I do. I let her do the lip gloss herself and she loves it. The other day Rhen was in the bathroom with us and Rease asked if she could put some make up on Rhen. I agreed and this is Rease's effort at putting it on.

She turned to me after trying for a minute and handed the lip gloss back and said, "Rhen's not good at make up. She just wants to suck on it."

Rhen's tricks

This is my sweet Rhen.

And these are her tricks:

1st trick - Josh's family has this thing where they all act like they're asleep when someone is about to walk into the room. Josh has passed this on to my kids and this is Rhen's version of "act like you're asleep!"

2nd trick - though not much of a fun trick for mom. She has learned to be a tantrum thrower. Why do kids ever have to go through this stage?3rd trick - She is learning all her body parts. She knows nose ("beep" is the noise associated with nose), ears ("wiggle, wiggle wiggle"), eyes and this is her showing her hair.

4th trick - Rhen is a screamer. Also not much of a trick but this is what she does a lot of the day. Makes me crazy sometimes!

Relaxing

"I'm just relaxing in my stroller. What are you doing?"

Our Girls

Rease is now almost 3. She will tell you "I'm 2 but almost 3 and my birthday is on June 6th." She's right but I can't quite believe that she is so grown up. Weren't we just in the hospital waiting for our first baby to arrive? I thought so. Anyway, here are a few things she's been up to:

We have been working on learning her letters, numbers, shapes and all sorts of things. We got her some flashcards and memory games and "play" them as often as we can. She thinks it's a game so I'll let her think that until she gets tired of "learning."

I just bought Rease some summer clothes and she is wearing size 5t and size 9 shoes. When I was checking out the lady that was helping me asked how old my girl is and I told her 2 - she couldn't believe that a 2 year old was wearing this size of clothes. Yeah - she's big for her age but she can't help it with the dad that she has!

Rease and our little neighbor boy are in a "sports camp" for a few weeks at Dimpledell. I'm not sure how coordinated she is and how well she can perform the sports but she has a fun time with it. She loves doing anything active and loves playing outside. She has started climbing on anything she can get to - rocks, chairs, fences, whatever. She also likes to jump off whatever it is that she has climbed on. Her jump usually ends up being more of a "slide off" but she is trying!

Rease's cutest little best friend Oscar just moved to Chicago (boo hoo) and she still talks about him constantly. Yesterday Josh drove by their old house with the girls and Rease said she wanted to stop at Oscar's house and tell him that she wants him to marry her. Josh called Oscar's mom and Rease left her a message "Heidi, I wanted to tell Oscar that I want him to marry me." Okay then - take matters into your own hands why don't you!

Rease is such a great big sister. She is always playing, kissing, hugging, laughing and whatever else with Rhen. Last week I was driving and she said "mom look I'm holding Rhen's hand." Sure enough she was holding on to Rhen's hand and they were both smiling from ear to ear!

We love our Reaser!

Rhen is now 14 months old and is so fun! I love this age where they are learning and copying and just trying to do as much as possible. I just got out Rease's old summer clothes for Rhen and once again can't believe how big my girls are. Rhen's clothes are 2-3T and is wearing size 4 shoes. Let me tell you about my Rhen:

Rhen is a character these days. She has started a high pitch squealing match between her and Rease. She will scream for no reason at all except just to be heard and then Rease will squeal back at her. Then they start laughing hysterically and start the squealing all over again. It gets pretty annoying I must say, but sometimes there is nothing to do about it especially when we are in the car and I can't reach them to make them stop. The best thing though is that they are the best of friends so I can't get too mad when they are just having a fun time

together.
Rhen is also a little lover girl and will gives kisses to anyone and everyone - including Grammie's dogs. The crazy thing about her kisses is that she is an open-mouth kisser so you get a mouthful of slobber when she comes in for a kiss. She has the same open mouth when she kisses the dogs - we are constantly chasing them away from her as they are licking inside her open mouth. Disgusting!
She still only has 4 teeth - 2 top and 2 bottom. But that does not stop her from eating whatever she wants. She is such a good eater and doesn't seem to mind when I give her healthy vegetables and fruits.

Rhen walks with her left foot pigeon-toed. We asked the doctor about it and he said she is fine and should grow out of it. I hope so. Until then she is really cute when she walks!

I have had to try and teach Rhen that hitting is not nice. She has started swatting us just at random times - not always necessarily when she's mad. So I'll grab her hand and say "No Rhen we don't hit." She gets this saddest look on her face and her eyes start to well up with tears. All of a sudden she is wailing and has her feelings hurt. I can't help but hug and kiss her until she's back to normal. Sweet little thing!

I am a lucky momma to have these girls in my life!

Beutler Fam

Josh's whole family was in town last weekend for his sister's wedding openhouse. It has been a long time since all of us have been together at the same time. As you can see, we had a fun time trying to get some family pictures.

We were even able to get some serious ones. Aren't these good looking men?

The Beutler Kids

All the girls.

What a group!